As happens each Easter, I find friends posting the supposed pagan origins, rooted in the worship of Ishtar. Any help in this would be appreciated.

“Easter” is the anglicized version of “Eostre” a Germanic deity whose feast fell around the same time as Passover and therefore the celebration of the Passion. Likewise “Lent” is just the Old English word for Spring. Many English-speaking Fundamentalists (both Christian and atheist) are big believers in a sort of uncritical “science” of folk etymology which imagines that because the word “Easter” is etymologically related to “Eostre”, Easter is therefore “really” the “worship” of Eostre. These same people, however, do not regard themselves as Moon worshippers merely because they say, “Today is Monday.” Similarly, they don’t seem to think the derivation of names for the other days of the week commits us to the “worship” of a pantheon of Norse and Graeco-Roman deities (Tewes, Woden, Thor, Freya, Saturn, and the Sun to be precise). Nor do they think calling January by its name makes them Janus worshippers, nor that calling March by its name commits them to the cult of Mars, the god of war. But that is because they regard themselves as extremely bright and assume that non-fundamentalists--and most especially Catholics--are preternaturally stupid.

In reality, of course, this sort of folk etymology is rubbish and much more common sense approaches to the matter suffice. Easter is called “Easter” because speakers of the proto-German/proto-English language that eventually forked off to produce modern English and German continued calling that time of year “Eostre” just as they continued calling Monday “Monday” even when they had stopped believing the Moon worthy of worship. Now their Engish and German-speaking descendants call it “Easter” and “Ostern” respectively. But Romance language speakers (and even the Germanic Dutch) don’t call it by any name related to Eostre. They call it “Pasch/Pasqua/Paques/Pasgua/Pasen/Paasfees/Pashket” etc. In other words, they call it by the name of the Hebrew feast from which Easter is derived: Passover.

English-speaking fundamentalists need to get out of their language group more often before making these solemn pronouncements on the “real” origins of foundational Christian feasts. Merely sharing a linguistic link with some aspect of paganism does not make Christianity “really” pagan in origin any more than Jesus was “really” a pagan because he walked around and talked with people—just like Socrates did! The question that must always be asked when you run across such folk etymologies is “Did the pagan take a Christian form and fill it with pagan content or did the Christian take the pagan form and fill it with Christian content?” What you will find is that every time you look at some pagan form lingering around into Christian times, the form stops being pagan and gets filled with Christian content. So we see such things as Easter eggs (fertility symbols) “repurposed” as symbols of the Empty Tomb. That's not because Christianity is "really" a fertility cult. It's because Christians believed Jesus Christ rose from the dead and did not believe in fertility cults. Mistletoe and Holly, once sacred to Druids, become symbols of eternal life (since they are green in winter) and of the blood of Christ. And so forth. Likewise, sites that were once pagan shrines became consecrated to Christ and churches were built there. But exactly the point of such actions is not that Christianity is embracing paganism. It’s that pagans are embracing Christ. That’s why the pagan Egyptian obelisk that stands before St. Peter’s basilica in Rome has a cross on top of it. Christ has called people from every nation, language, tribe and tongue. The last thing ancient pagans did was not "infect the Church with paganism." The last thing they did was ask for baptism, a point frequently lost, not only on Christian and atheist fundamentalists, but on modern neo-pagans who busy themselves inventing pretend ancient histories and even more pretend modern neo-paganism.

Thanks, Eileen. I have very little patience with these Jew-hating nuts who excuse and minimize mass murder while posing as the gold standard for Truly True Catholic Faith.

Posted by Eileen on Thursday, Apr, 11, 2013 1:18 PM (EST):

I just wanted to pop into your blog and thank you for responding on Simcha’s blog today. I’m neither a good enough person nor a good enough writer to respond to some of those posts both snark free and well. But you’re doing it. Thank you.

Actually, none of the other gospels, except maybe the Gospel of Thomas, are early enough. The first generation did not know them and, curiously, virtually none of them are written in the genre of the Greek bios, that is, a straightforward life of the subject. Thomas e.g. is simply a collection of gnostic sayings and wink-wink-nudge-nudges, some of which are found in the actual gospels.

Posted by Robin on Tuesday, Apr, 9, 2013 2:43 PM (EST):

Notice how Christ directly gave to St. Peter the Apostle (who is always listed first among the Apostles in the Bible) the Keys to bind issues on Heaven & Earth & not a book. Those Keys (true authority) are still used in Papal seals & coat of arms (& Holy See Flag). The Bible is “fundamentally” Catholic as well.

Posted by Robin on Tuesday, Apr, 9, 2013 2:36 PM (EST):

Jim, I get the same surprised reaction with them (& other fundies) when I tell them that there were way more than 4 gospels written about Christ & a (no, the) Church had to sort through them & decide which were to be part of the Church canon. Another case of the Church’s Christ-given authority coming b4 this Bible-ONLY belief (which has ironically produced 45,000 different & separate denominations).

Posted by Jim on Monday, Apr, 8, 2013 11:36 PM (EST):

My discussions with a JW co-worker came to a halt when I challenged him to tell me who decided which writings were to be authoritatively collected into the Bible, and what these “deciders” are collectively called. I’ve noticed that they like to say something is “just man’s opinion” when they don’t agree with it, but they call it the truth when they do agree. Amusing.

Posted by Dixibehr on Monday, Apr, 8, 2013 10:36 PM (EST):

Two things: An egg has a prominent place on the Seder (Passover meal) plate.

And Jehovah’s false Witnesses are NOT fundamentalists, as they deny several of the points of classical Protestant fundamentalism.

Ye Olde, I’m disputing the fact that JW’s or many other fundies are so authoritatively adamant about accusing the one true Apostolic Church (with actual Apostolic authority coming from Christ Himself) of being “extra-Biblical” when they themselves authoritatively hold to many “extra-Biblical” additions (like the name Jehovah) when they themselves have no Apostolic authority handed given to them directly by Christ (which our Catholic Church does). I also like to tell them: where did Bible
come from? Where in Bible does it mention Bible or even that the Bible itself is the ONLY authority? Who has final authority on how essential (& controversial) Bible passages will be interpreted? Which came first the Bible or the Church? (Ans: Church) Now I love the Bible, but true faith holds both Sacred Scripture & Sacred (Apostolic) Tradition as both Holy & Holy Spirit-inspired.

Posted by Ye Olde Statistician on Monday, Apr, 8, 2013 9:25 PM (EST):

Re: Jehovah/Yahweh. Keep in mind that Latin J was pronounced like a Y and that V and U were not distinguished in writing until late in the day, and W is simply double-U’s: VV.

Posted by Doug on Monday, Apr, 8, 2013 9:16 PM (EST):

Cats, why should we be “scared” of the origin of words on paper? Raymundus Martini was looking for a way to use God’s personal name in his Bibles and settled on “Jehovah”. It has been used ever since.
You’ll read that “Yahweh” is considered a better pronunciation, but that’s man’s opinion. Either version- or “Yehowah” or any other that preserves the Hebrew letters- is acceptable to the Father of Jesus (or Joshua or Jehoshua or Yeshua ...)
Until someone finds Moses’ tape recorder, the important thing is to use the personal name of God. Ancient Jews did so (Ruth 2:4) and we know Jesus did: “I have made thy name known to the men whom thou hast entrusted to me, chosen out of the world ... I have revealed, and will reveal, thy name to them;”. John 17:6,26, Douay
You don’t want to end up like poor Pharaoh, up the Sea without a paddle:
“Why, he answered [Moses], who is this Lord [of course he said Jehovah, as you know] that I must obey his command, and let Israel go free? I know no such Lord as that; I will not let Israel go” Ex 5:2; check your people’s Jerusalem Bible. Then,
“But no, this is the very reason why I [Jehovah] have made thee [Pharaoh] what thou art, so as to give proof, in thee, of my power, and to let my name be known all over the earth.” Followed by plagues and a swimming lesson. If Jehovah wants his name to be known all over the earth- as it is, in fact- shouldn’t you be willing to pitch in?

Posted by Dr J.A.C. MacLeod on Monday, Apr, 8, 2013 6:29 PM (EST):

It is my understanding of ‘decimate’ as well that it refers to a savage form of punishment meted out to the Roman army whereby every tenth man was executed. This discussion has reminded me that Chesterton also once said, ‘When people stop believing in God they do not believe in nothing; they believe in anything.’ Now, don’t get me started on countable and uncountable nouns (an amount of people/ a number of people, and so on).

Posted by nopoliticalparties on Monday, Apr, 8, 2013 4:46 PM (EST):

Militant atheists are so ignorant in their belief of the Humanities (philosophy, history, arts, tradition, literature) that it baffles me. They claim that we are “sheep” (which can be a good thing only if your Supreme Shepherd is the the Most Loving, Awesome Jesus) but when I look around their ignorant comments on the news blogs, it’s them that blindly follow & worship Richard Dawkins & Hitchens. As Chesterton said: “Take away the Supernatural & you’re only left with the Unnatural.”

Decimation was used to discipline a legion that had shown cowardice in battle. One man in ten was killed, the Romans not being noted for touchy-feely approaches.

Why atheofundies never think of the Jewish connection is a mystery.

Posted by Msgr. Charles Pope on Monday, Apr, 8, 2013 2:19 PM (EST):

@ Matt B - To decimate, according to my understanding is to reduce the population of a town by 10% The Romans, in order to intimidate and warn against uprising would gather rebellious towns or localities and line up the men. And they would kill every tenth man, as a warning to the rest not to resist or mess with the Romans.

Posted by Will on Monday, Apr, 8, 2013 1:09 PM (EST):

But… But… English-speaking countries are the world! Because no one else had any history! Just like anything we dislike in the Bible was put there by the King of England.

Posted by Bryan Gesinger on Monday, Apr, 8, 2013 1:03 PM (EST):

The Etymological Fallacy rears its ugly head again! Many words’ definitions have evolved from their etymons—the root terms whence they derived. To identify such terms with their roots is to commit a logical error. The etymon of “Gospel,” “evangelion,” was the term for pagan Emperors’ edicts. No Christian would argue that St. Paul (<inter alios>) was engaging in a tribute to paganism via his use of “evangelion” (despite its pagan pedigree). Similarly, even though St. Paul adduced excerpts of the pagan Epimenedes’s hymn to Zeus, “Cretica,” and the pagan Aratus of Soli’s “Phaenomena” (cf. Acts 17:28), no Christian accuses St. Paul of worshiping Zeus or any other pagan deities. Similarly, St. Augustine of Hippo cited Virgil’s “Fourth Eclogue” (from his “Bucolics,” which he modeled after Theocritus’s “Bucolica”) as a Gentile prophecy of Jesus Christ.
We Catholics would do well to study logic and the historical milieu of the Early Church, so as to refute the errors that often proliferate without scrutiny.

Posted by Cats on Monday, Apr, 8, 2013 1:00 PM (EST):

As for Jehovah’s Witnesses (who also spread about such etymological lies), tell them about the Catholic origin of the word Jehovah, that’ll get them scared. hehe It has its origins based on the translations of Catholic monks on the tetrogram YHWH (in ancient Hebrew there used to be no written vowels).

Posted by Matt B on Monday, Apr, 8, 2013 12:49 PM (EST):

Monsignor, the months July and August were introduced into the roman calendar in celebration of Julius and Augustus Caesar, who were thus deified. Does decimate mean “reduce by 10%” or “reduce to 10% of the original whole” or by an order of magnitude? If the former, then every commission agent can be accused of “decimating the economy.” If the latter, the term can only be used of a handful of big banks and government institutions.

Posted by Msgr. Charles Pope on Monday, Apr, 8, 2013 12:29 PM (EST):

And a related topic I have always been amazed that our months are so out of step with their ancient meanings. September (Septem = 7) but we call it nine, October (oct = 8) but we call it ten, November (novem = 9 but we call it 11), and December (Decem = 10) but we call it 12.

And while we’re at word meanings, can we please stop using “decimate” to mean total destruction when in fact it means to reduce by one tenth?

:-)

Posted by dmw on Monday, Apr, 8, 2013 11:20 AM (EST):

One may always point to the fact, too, that the name of our Lord, Jesus, is an “pagan” Greek-language “corruption” of his Aramaic (and Hebrew) name which is really ‘Joshua.’

Posted by Matt B on Monday, Apr, 8, 2013 11:10 AM (EST):

The moon is no longer worthy of worship???

Posted by Magnificat on Monday, Apr, 8, 2013 4:08 AM (EST):

Why are those fundamentalists so so English-centric? Bad education, I suppose. As noone ever heard of Latin, Greek, Spanish, Italian, French, Russian ...

Posted by School on Monday, Apr, 8, 2013 1:21 AM (EST):

The Peter’s obelisk also serves as a “trophy” of Christ’s final Victory as it was originally from Egypt (who had enslaved God’s Israelite People) so that’s one point for God & then taken from Egyptians by the Romans (whose hands had helped kill our Christ & persecuted/killed many early Christians, but then they collapsed) so another triumphant point for God that now that the Cross is on top of it on the site of Christian martyr blood. To be Catholic (universal in Truth in Christ) is to also be embracing of Christ’s Glorious & all-embracing Transformation of Both Jew & Gentile to make them Catholic (Universal or one).

Posted by School on Monday, Apr, 8, 2013 1:03 AM (EST):

Remember we Catholics revere & hold as truth both Sacred Scriptures & Sacred (Apostolic) Tradition; both are inspired by the Holy Spirit sent to us by God. This makes our faith so much richer compared to Fundamentalists. And the lesser Church (little t) traditions, though not “Sacred” in the Church’s full sense of the word, if put in the right places in our lives, they can indeed help us grow in Christ vigorously, which we want.

Posted by School on Monday, Apr, 8, 2013 12:54 AM (EST):

Chesterton said that Tradition is the greatest of democracy as it gives a forum to the many voices of our ancestors. If militant/ “sophisticated” atheists had their way they’d do away with it all- even if it means eliminating a vital part of humanity’s soul. The splendor of Catholicism is its ability to take certain (not all have the potential to be compatible with the faith) pagan customs/traditions (of which Easter/Lent are NOT, they’re pure Bible Scriptural) & through Christ’s Resurrection Power fundamentally transform & elevate those pagan traits to add to God’s glory, help bring others to Christ, & give them the new worthy Life that only Jesus can give.

Posted by School on Monday, Apr, 8, 2013 12:35 AM (EST):

And remember: this “problem” is mostly only for Germanic (includes English) languages. In Romantic (Latin) languages like Spanish or Italian, we remain faithful to the Biblical word origin. Like Pascua (Spa. Easter) comes from Hebrew Paschal or Passover. Or Cuaresma (Lent in Spanish) literally means 40 days/nights (that Jesus fasted in desert or even 40 years the Israelites wandered before being allowed to enter Promised Land). And as for English “Easter” I believe there are passages in Bible where it says Jesus is the Light rising from the East. I like this metaphor as the Sun is the center of our solar system & source of life on Earth, it’s fitting that we use such clear analogy to describe the Son of God (no Christ pun intended). Also, Paschal (Easter) Candles symbolize how fast the news of His Resurrection spread using light.

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Mark Shea

Mark P. Shea is a popular Catholic writer and speaker. The author of numerous books, his most recent work is The Work of Mercy (Servant) and The Heart of Catholic Prayer (Our Sunday Visitor). Mark contributes numerous articles to many magazines, including his popular column “Connecting the Dots” for the National Catholic Register. Mark is known nationally for his one minute “Words of Encouragement” on Catholic radio. He also maintains the Catholic and Enjoying It blog. He lives in Washington state with his wife, Janet, and their four sons.